Gemalto has announced that China Telecom has selected its UpTeq Multi-tenant NFC SIMs to deploy secure NFC transport services in China’s two largest cities – Shanghai and Beijing. China Telecom is a leading operator in the country with more than 183 million subscribers. This deployment will enable up to 45 million1 daily commuters to ride their metros and pay for their everyday purchases with a simple tap of their smartphones. The NFC SIMs are also embedded with Gemalto’s 4G LTE management software, allowing users to download applications with the convenience and speed of mobile broadband.

China has a population of about 1.4 billion and by 2020, 60% of its people will live in the citie2. To cater to the increased masses, the transport and payment systems are moving rapidly towards contactless form. For payment alone, China has about 4 million terminals accepting UnionPay’s QuickPass. The country also has the largest smartphone user base in the world3, offering huge potential for mobile contactless transactions. Now that the two biggest mobile operators have launched NFC transport services in Beijing, almost all of the city commuters can ride their metros using their smartphones.

“China Telecom has been Gemalto’s partner for a long time. Last year, we provided specially-designed NFC SIMs for their nationwide launch of NFC services,” said Suzanne Tong-Li, President for Greater China and Korea at Gemalto. “With 4G FDD-LTE commercial license, they will be able to leverage the additional LTE feature of Gemalto’s SIMs to offer faster and enhanced NFC services to their customers, leading to a wider adoption of mobile contactless services across the country.”

The UpTeq NFC Multi-tenant SIM forms part of Gemalto’s complete portfolio of mobile contactless solutions, which include the Allynis Trusted Services Hub​​.